0626, 



Glass 
Book. 




c 



^v#.^^^^ 





SLAVERY AND ITS PROSPECTS 



IX THE 



UNIT=E!D STATES. 



\ 



/ 



SLAVERY AND ITS PROSPECTS 






UNITED STATES. 



CAMBRIDGE: 
METCALF AND COMPANY, 

TRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

1857. 



h 




CAMBRIDGE : 

3IETCALF AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 






SLAVERY AND ITS PROSPECTS. 



Upon attending to the course of Providence in educat- 
ing the human race, in gradually enlightening their igno- 
rance and improving their physical and mental existence, 
we cannot but feel hopeful that this process will be per- 
mitted to go on, — not probably without interruption, but 
substantially, and perhaps with increasing rapidity. We 
do not wish to be considered as visionary dreamers, but 
we hope to be regarded as practical and prudent, with a 
fair view of the course of events in the world, and with 
just so much expectation as is properly inspired and justi- 
fied by the progress of the ages. It is only by contrasting 
distant periods that we can perceive such decided ad- 
vances in character, in knowledge, and the practical appli- 
cation of knowledge, as are too manifest to be denied, not- 
withstanding the continued existence of old ignorance, 
old follies, and old passions. In structm-e, men remain the 
same as at the beginning ; in knowledge, the improvement 
is great, and may be, and probably will be, much more 
considerable ; while in skill in the adaptation of their 
knowledge to circumstances, their progress will probably 
be far greater than it ever has been, and will go on with 
an accelerating speed. There will be as great a variety 
as ever in the relative advance of different races ; and it 
behooves those who desire their posterity to stand well in 
the rank of nations to take care that there be no corrupt- 



ing evil in the habits or institutions they transmit, which 
will undermine and weaken the power of any good or any 
blessing they may hand down. 

It is not worth while to spend time and thought upon 
abstract principles, which may stand or fall without mate- 
rial effect upon great interests, nor upon such temporary 
feelings as produce no lasting results. We prefer to ad- 
dress ourselves directly to the great subject of interest, 
both material and speculative, to the age and nation. 
This is, beyond all question, slavery ; and if we can man- 
age to discuss the matter with becoming calmness, we 
may be useful in that, at least, if we cannot suggest any- 
thing that may reach the understanding, or the heart, of 
this people upon the vexed and complicated subject. 

Abstractly, and in itself alone, there is nothing very dif- 
ficult about it. It is sufficiently obvious that nobody has 
an inherent right to the services of another, and that no 
one is very likely to give services to another, except from 
pure affection. To say that slavery has its origin in 
strength, and not right, is sufficient upon that point ; but 
it is worth while to consider as calmly as possible, not 
whether a wrong can become a right thing, but whether 
by simple opposition an evil can be cured. Undoing a 
wrong unskilfully produces often more evil than the origi- 
nal ill-doing ; indeed, there is scarcely an example of sud- 
den reform, in the history of the world, that did not pro- 
duce greater evils than those against which men were 
struggling, — at least for a time ; and the greater the good 
sought, the greater, it would seem, were the evils accom- 
panying the seeking. As it has been, so it probably will 
be, unless men learn a lesson from experience, and apply 
to the present the instructions of the past. At all events, 
an evil which has existed in all countries from the days of 
the patriarchs until a recent period, and which has been re- 
moved in a few places only, and in some within a compara- 
tively modern date, is not to be eradicated without diffi- 



culty. It will require all the skill of the wisest and most 
enlightened minds, the patience of the most persevering 
spirits, as well as the enterprise of the most ardent and 
sanguine persons, to conquer this enormous evil, which has 
grown with the growth of nations, and mixed itself with 
the strongest passions of the human heart. It is apt, in 
these days and in this country, to be regarded in a wrong 
point of view. It is not, naturally, a political, but a social, 
institution. It was forced into political importance by its 
introduction into the political organization of tlie United 
States, by the fears rather than the ambition of the slave- 
holders of that day. Since that time it has been made, by 
the slaveholders themselves, a political topic, an ingre- 
dient in the political parties and organizations of the time, 
and consequently one of the instruments of personal ambi- 
tion. 

The slaveholders have acted, and have shown a deter- 
mination to act, on the principle of maintaining an equal- 
ity of the number of the States in the government of the 
United States ; as if equality were to be maintained by the 
mere number of State organizations, without regard to the 
character of the people who constitute those organizations 
in other relations than in connection with slavery. It is to 
this ambition to retain equal power in the government, 
that the introduction of this subject into the political dis- 
cussions and controversies of the United States is attribu- 
table ; and it is the introduction of it into the Constitution 
alone which gives us all, non-slaveholders as well as im- 
mediate owners of slaves, the right to discuss the subject. 
Everybody knows that the right, or rather the privilege, 
of slave representation (for there is nothing like equality 
about it) was conceded for the sake of peace and good- 
will, to the urgent instances — demands, we might say — 
of the Southern States, at the time of the adoption of the 
Constitution ; but it did not occur to them that the intro- 
duction of the subject, however cautiously, into the Con- 



stitution, gave us an irrevocable right to discuss the matter, 
and, if at any time we should be able to do so, to amend 
the provision in reference to servants, as well as all other 
provisions of the Constitution. It was this grasping at 
more than an equal representation on their part, very re- 
luctantly yielded on the part of the North, which gave 
the latter the right to talk, — a right the practical exer- 
cise of which has endangered the institution more, by a 
great deal, than the constitutional provision has done, or 
could do, to preserve it. 

There are other circumstances which have gradually 
come about, which operate both favorably and unfavor- 
ably upon the plan and prospect of emancipation. One 
is the gi-eat change in the commercial circumstances of the 
world and the physical productions of the South. There 
was a time, and a not very remote one, when the products 
of American slave labor were not much in demand in the 
markets of the world, when the pecuniary value of the 
slaves in the United States was not a tenth part of what 
it is now. But as an offset to this, it must be recollected 
that the very circumstance which has enhanced the value 
of the slave has given increased resources to the owner, so 
that the difficulty is as great, it may be, but no greater, 
than before. If anything, it is easier for the South to dis- 
pense with slave labor now, when the owners are compara- 
tively rich, than it would have been half a century ago. 
The mental and moral difficulty is gi-eater, the material 
difficulty is, in truth, less. 

Another change of circumstances is also to be observed. 
Fifty years ago, liberated slaves must have been kept in 
America. There was no way to get rid of them. The 
freed black would have been almost as great a check to the 
prosperity of the country as the slave, perhaps a greater 
one. Now, on the contrary, there is an opening for them 
in their native land, which affords just that opportunity 
which was wanted for a gradual, quiet, and mutually bene- 



ficial emigration of the slave to his forefathers' home, there 
to become master of himself, and to give new evidence of 
the advantages of republican independence. 

Another circumstance still is to be observed, which is of 
immeasurable importance in every view of the complicated 
subject. It is the vast change which has taken place in the 
relations of the States to each other, in the points of popu- 
lation and wealth. The slave region is more than one half 
larger than that of non-slaveholding States in the Union. 
It was always larger, and the disproportion has been 
mightily increased by the acquisition of Louisiana and 
Texas, Not only have the Slave States the advantage in 
extent, but in the points of climate and soil there is an 
almost immeasurable superiority. But this is true of the 
soil and climate only. In population the advantage is 
just the other way. Starting, with the Revolution, near- 
ly equal in numbers and strength, the north has out- 
grown the south in numbers one half, to say nothing of 
other points of difference in resources of various kinds, 
which are as indicative as numbers of different degrees of 
success and prosperity. To what can this be ascribed but 
to the absence of slavery in one section of the country and 
its presence in the other ? The climate of Northern Vir- 
ginia is not very materially different from that of Pennsyl- 
vania ; the soil is better, if anything ; and if considered in 
reference to physical circumstances only, one would proba- 
bly prefer Virginia as a residence. But somehow or other, 
the emigrating population do not think so. They prefer 
the States just north of Mason and Dixon's line to those 
just south of it. 

We remember to have seen as striking marks of differ- 
ence on the two sides of the dividing line between two 
countries of Europe, as on those of the line between slave- 
holding and non-slaveholding States. The variation there 
was caused by religion and government, — arbitrary gov- 
ernment and the Catholic religion on the one side, a lib- 



eral government and Protestantism on the other. The 
difference was marked, and probably no one who hap- 
pened to think of the varieties of religion and govern- 
ment in the countries of Europe would fail to ascribe to 
them the existing contrasts of physical condition. So, we 
think, no one will hesitate to ascribe the differences between 
the population north and south of Mason and Dixon's line 
to the existence and non-existence of slavery ; and the far- 
ther one travels from the dividing line in each case, the 
more marked does that difference become. There is no 
other contrast, either in habits, origin, or character, which 
is so striking, and there seems to be nothing else to which 
it can be attributed. The institutions of government, the 
religious customs, the language, the usual manners in all 
that has no connection with " the institution," are so nearly 
alike as to be almost identical. There is nothing but 
slavery which distinguishes the settler north of the Ohio 
River from him of the south ; and until better informed, 
we must set it down precisely and exclusively to that cause 
that there is so much more population, activity, and wealth 
in the portion of the Union where there are no slaves, than 
in that where they exist. 

Not only the amount, but the entire character, of the 
population is affected by the existence or non-existence 
of a subordinate class. Doubtless there are persons of as 
much moral and mental worth in slaveholding states as in 
others ; but it is the tendency of the institution, as exhib- 
ited in the history of the world, to produce some faults 
which do not prevail in places where it does not exist. 
It should not be inferred, as it often is, that this tendency 
is practically carried out to the utmost, and that because 
the tendency of a habit or custom is bad, therefore every 
person who is subject to the influence of that tendency 
must necessarily be bad too. This is precisely the sort 
of logic which forms parties on any subject, and which 
makes them exaggerating, angry, and bitter in their con- 
flicts. 



9 



It is of the utmost importance to us and our posterity, 
to the southerner and his posterity, and to the slave and 
his posterity, not only that the truth should be spoken, but 
that it should be spoken calmly, persuasively, convincingly. 
Mixing the question with politics is not the best way to 
produce or continue this calm state of mind. Reckless per- 
sons, connected with the all-powerful press, write irritating 
paragraphs, which are replied to by others of the same 
character, and the whole population goes on mutually pro- 
voking and abusing each other ; and in however Pickwick- 
ian a sense this may be taken by some, it is sure to be 
construed with aggravated bitterness by others. Thus two 
parties lash each other into a rage, like two boys on board 
ship, and forget in mutual vehemence and animosity the 
amusement they are affording to the malicious by-standers. 
Let us lay down our lashes, and consider om' own case 
without recrimination if we can ; and determine what is 
best to be done, under the circumstances, without regard 
to the gibes or reproaches of those who would like to see 
us quarrel. A dispute needs not, and ought not, to be so 
violent as to be unappeasable and interminable. Nor does 
it become men to rush into evils that they know not of, till 
they have tried all reasonable means of abating the ills they 
suffer. 

A preliminary question is, whether slavery, under the 
circumstances of climate and cultivation in our Southern 
States, is necessary or not ; that is, whether the work which 
is now done could be done, and the products which are 
now raised could be raised, without slave labor? It seems 
astonishing, and somewhat disheartening from all endeavor 
to convince or persuade men in opposition to their pas- 
sions, that a question of this sort should be started and 
seriously discussed in this age of the world. If anything 
has been proved by facts in the history of the human race, 
in every situation and climate in which men have hereto- 
fore been found, it is that slave labor is the most expensive 
2 



10 



and least profitable species of labor. It wants the natural 
stimulus, the love of gain ; and no operation of fear can 
produce the steady, unintermitted exertion which is the re- 
sult of the universal feeling of the desire of improvement, 
or at least of independence. Thousands of years and mil- 
lions of lives have been spent in the experiment, in all con- 
ceivable varieties of climate, soil, and other conditions, with 
one uniform, ultimate result, that, if man is to work well, it 
must be for the benefit of himself and his family. 

We do not mean, that nobody can be supported by the 
unrequited labor of others, but there are proofs enough in 
the world to show that, if a man is to work profitably for 
anybody, it must be for himself. Indeed, it is certain that 
no people, no nation, can be maintained for successive ages 
in prosperity by slave labor. All time testifies to this, from 
the days when the Pharaohs of Egypt tried it with the 
children of Abraham, to those when serfs were gradually 
liberated all over Europe, — to the manifest improvement 
of the condition of all, masters and servants alike. The 
present condition of Russia, as compared with that of neigh- 
boring and weaker nations, proves the same thing. Serf- 
dom still exists there, and the population is neither so great 
nor so productive as it might be, as it certainly would be, 
if all could control the products of their own labor. It is 
difficult to bring arguments to prove a thing so self-evident, 
or rather so evident from the experience of all time. But 
look through Europe from east to west, from north to 
south, and wherever you find the condition of all classes 
most free, the condition of all classes is the best. Nobody 
doubts this with regard to the lower ranks, the peasants, 
the laborers ; but many believe that the grandees of 
Russia are rather happier and more fortunate people 
than anybody else in the world, without thinking how 
much greater and happier they would be if their serfs 
were all freemen. In England, where nobody is a serf, 
the nobility are as rich and as prosperous, to say the least, 



11 



as those of any other country, though there may not be an 
individual of wealth equal to that of an Esterhazy. But 
the difference to our eyes, unaccustomed to estimate prop- 
erties so vast, is scarcely discernible, and we cannot see 
that the greatness of an estate has anything whatever to 
do with the profitableness of the species of labor bestowed 
upon it. All that we contend for is, that, however great an 
estate may be with slave or serf labor, it would be greater 
still with free labor. 

Now comes the great standing argument, the dieval de 
battaillc of the slaveholder in this country, namely, that 
our climate is a sufficient preventive of the labor of the 
white man, — that the utmost he can do is to drive slaves. 
This statement has been repeated so long and so often, that 
no one now ventures to question its truth, no one at least 
in Slave States. But if it be fairly examined, we believe 
it will prove to be a statement not sufficiently supported 
by facts, and opposed by analogies so strong that it will 
be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain it. The eastern 
coast of Asia has a climate somewhat similar to our own ; 
more so, at least, than that of Europe on the western coast 
of the same continent. In the East, there are in similar 
latitudes the same extremes of heat and cold, the same 
heavy rains and dews, the same luxuriant vegetation, the 
same varieties of surface, hill and dale and river. The 
nations that inhabit and cultivate those countries, that 
labor in climates so like our own, if not of the Caucasian 
race, are certainly not negroes ; so that the argument that 
none but negroes can work in such climates falls helplessly 
to the ground. Others do work in precisely such a climate, 
extending at least as many degrees of latitude, — from the 
tropical heat of a Canton summer to the almost Siberian 
cold of a Pekin winter. Three hundred millions of human 
beings, who are as far removed from negroes as they are 
from us in race and organization, not only labor, but are 
patterns of patient industry to the rest of mankind. 



12 



Then look for a moment at the south of Europe. In 
Spain and Italy the climate is, at least, as warm as our 
own. It is less invigorating. There is a tendency to 
languor in its effects, which is rarely experienced in our 
more bracing and tonic atmosphere. But such as it is, 
men of Caucasian race work in it, and work as continu- 
ously as our slaves, and a great deal more profitably. A 
population is assembled even in those countries, wretchedly 
governed as they are, far greater to a square mile than in 
our Southern States, and a much greater one has been, 
and could be again, supported by labor upon their soil, in 
their climate. Why not, then, on our soil, in our climate ? 
It may be said Spain and Calabria are mountainous, and 
therefore wholesome. So, too, are our Southern, as well 
as Northern States. Are the Alleghanies annihilated? 
Does the level, sandy coast constitute the whole of the 
Southern States ? There is as much fever and ague in 
Rome and its Campagna as in any of our Southern States. 
But is it made an argument for giving up labor, and im- 
porting Africans to do it ? There is fever and ague in 
abundance in the Northern States, nay, in the immediate 
vicinity of the great cities of New York and Philadelphia ; 
so that everybody avoids exposure to it in the localities 
where it is experienced. In the new States, whether 
north or south, it prevails to a vast extent; but in the 
north the settling and clearing up of the land checks it to 
such a degree, that it ceases to be a terror to the inhabi- 
tants, while in the low, sandy plains of the south both 
fever and ague and yellow-fever continue as trouble- 
some as ever. 

But making the most of them, are they a justification of 
slavery ? One would think that they prevailed universally, 
at all hours and all seasons. But everybody knows that 
there are large portions of the year, and of every day of 
every year, in which there is little danger ; and if slavery 
and slaveholding were confined to those portions of the 



13 



south where malaria is really formidable, it would be 
much less of an evil than it actually is. But the epidemic 
of the low country is, ludicrously enough, made an argu- 
ment for slavery among the hills, where there is as little 
danger from it as on the summit of Mount Washington. 
The first stejj in the progress of measures to abolish 
slavery should be, it seems to us, to limit the extent of 
territory over which it may spread ; and if the limit of 
fever and ague and of yellow-fever could be made the 
limit of the greater curse of slavery, it would wonderfully 
diminish the risks and evils of both. 

This question of healthiness or unhealthiness of the 
climate has, in fact, nothing to do with that of slavery or 
no slavery. Blacks may surely be induced, by the same 
prospect of gain which influences the white man, to culti- 
vate rice and long-staple cotton, if it be necessary. Of 
course such a change in the habits of races is not brought 
about in a day ; but when the question resolves itself into 
one of time, the greatest difficulties must already have 
been conquered. With regard to the assertion, that the 
black cannot be induced to labor by the prospect of gain 
or advantage of any sort, we esteem it about as correct as 
it would be of children. There are some who have not 
forethought enough, but there would be found many more 
who have ; and we doubt not rice and long-staple cotton 
could be produced in as great abundance, and at as advan- 
tageous a price, by free black labor, as by that of the slave. 
At all events, the difficulties of that question are as noth- 
ing to those which encumber the alternative of perpetuat- 
ing slavery through future generations. 

The want of practical faith (the only kind of faith which 
is worth a moment's attention) in this incompatibility of 
the climate with white labor is abundantly shown when a 
real want of white labor occurs. Let a military occasion 
or a military want arise, and men enough will be found to 
scorn the risks of malaria, as well as the shot and shells of 



14 



an enemy ; and this under circumstances of exposure 
which could hardly occur in the peaceful occupations of 
life. But it will be said that this is under the great stim- 
ulus of love of country, love of glory, of renown, or of duty. 
The very same motives may be appealed to in the case of 
slavery. Who could show greater love of country or of 
duty, and who could hope for a greater reward of imper- 
ishable glory, than he who should, by the light of truth and 
example, convince our southern brethren that slavery is no 
necessity of their condition, but that they would be every 
way better off without it than with it ? We are well aware 
that many a slaveholder needs no convincing. He is con- 
vinced already that white labor in nine cases out of ten is 
possible ; but he sees no practicable way in which the 
country, nor consequently himself, can escape from the 
fearful incubus of slavery. 

Probably there is no way to produce such a vast result 
at once. But there is a way to begin, and with every 
revolving day the course of the current would become 
deeper and stronger, the relief greater, the improvement 
more manifest. 

Whatever is done must be begun and completed by 
the south, and by the south alone. She has chosen 
to wear the dress, and no one can change it but herself. 
Seedy as it begins to appear in spots, out of fashion too 
with the present generation, nothing can persuade her as 
yet to part with the easy and comfortable garment ; but 
as surely as time goes on, it will be put aside in one of 
three ways, — either she will put it off herself, or it will be 
torn off by violence, or it will drop off by being worn out. 
If slaveholders were only aware of the fact, that slavehold- 
ing is the most expensive way of employing the labor of 
others, its doom would be sealed very promptly ; and now 
that men have tried so many other ways of inducing them 
to give up the custom, and tried them in vain, why should 
we not set seriously about the economical argument, and 



15 



show them that free labor costs less, and produces more, 
involves no crime of stealing a man from himself, and is 
attended with no responsibility for the present or the future 
welfare of his operatives ? 

These assertions, it may be said by some of the friends 
of freedom, require no argument. They are self-evident, 
and if a man does not see the truth of them, it must be 
because he wilfully shuts his eyes. Not at all. Very few 
things out of Euclid are self-evident ; and certainly one of 
them is not the value of free labor as compared with that 
which is involuntary. We New-Englanders ourselves, 
wise and practical as we are, did not know the fact till 
lately, and like a boy at school who has just learnt a new 
thing, we go bragging about and making ourselves odious 
or ridiculous to the rest of mankind. We forget, too, that 
our fathers are liable to the reproach of holding slaves, 
without the excuse, even the poor excuse, of the climate, 
which is the universal justification of the southerner. If 
we have any regard, therefore, for the memory of those 
fathers of whom we are so fond of boasting, we should 
cease to reproach our southern brethren in this matter. 
Our fathers were pretty respectable men, notwithstanding 
they held slaves ; so it is possible our southern friends 
may be, notwithstanding the slaves which were entailed 
upon them by fathers whom they revere as much as we 
do ours. But we freed our slaves at the Revolution, while 
the south did not, and therefore it is said we have a right 
to reproach them with an inconsistency we have avoided. 
Let us be careful equally to avoid the sin and folly of 
vainglorious boasting. Our fathers had a few slaves, — 
just enough to involve them in the guilt of the offence, — 
slaves who were an encumbrance to them, and whom they 
were glad to get rid of, at the same time that they could 
get an opportunity for boasting of a cheap sacrifice. Our 
southern friends had slaves in larger proportion to their 
entire population ; and, with the best will in the world to 



16 



get rid of them, for many years, they saw no way to do it. 
Afterwards slaveholding became profitable to land-holders, 
and one great inducement to change the system of labor 
passed away. 

For about half a century after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, which certainly committed us as a nation to the 
doctrines of Anti-slavery, the subject was allowed to sleep 
in the consciences of men ; but at last all were aroused 
by its influence in the northern politics of the day, men 
thinking very naturally, but not very wisely, that the best 
if not the only way to get rid of an evil of any sort was 
to make it the subject of political agitation. Moral ques- 
tions like slavery and temperance are not the proper sub- 
jects of votes. A man's abstinence from wine or intoxi- 
cating liquors will not fit him for political ofiice, even if he 
abstains, not only from their use, but from traffic in them, 
at a great pecuniary loss, as many have done. This may 
make him a very estimable person, but does not properly 
qualify him to be the President of the United States, or 
Governor of the Commonwealth. On the contrary, nar- 
rowing his political sympathies to those with whom he 
agrees on no other points, contracts his mind to too small a 
sphere for a statesman to occupy ; and he only is fitted to 
legislate for a vast and diversified country like this, who 
can take comprehensive views, and can see what is adapted 
to the improvement of each portion of the country. Lo- 
cal, sectional, selfish objects may be pardoned, for a man 
may know no better ; but cannot command our respect, for 
that can only be acquired by large sympathies and com- 
prehensive designs. In this age of the world, and in this 
vast aggregation of countries and climates in one govern- 
ment, largeness of view is especially in demand ; and the 
very best measures can obtain no success, if they are 
planned with reference only to a part of this great confed- 
eracy ; nor will those measures, often, which may be spe- 
cially designed for sectional purposes, effect their ends, even 



17 



if they can be carried. Neither can we interfere directly 
with any system of measures which any of the States may 
choose to pursue in reference to its own affairs. Thirty 
years' experience may surely be said to prove this. Thirty 
years' more would produce no greater effect; and it will 
be well if we can realize the fact, before disunion and 
hostility take the place of peace and strength. 

This question of abolition is one, as we conceive, and 
as is shown by the course of events, which is so vast as to 
be imperfectly understood by many minds. It is, at all 
events, too vast for mere human control, and it would be 
well if we could permit no mixture of evil to thrust itself 
into our desire for good, especially our desire for the good 
of others. Philanthropy is terribly prone to degenerate 
into persecution ; and we are apt to think ourselves very 
virtuous, when we compel men by law, or otherwise, to 
do what we think right, as well as to abstain from what 
we think wrong. Public opinion, without being expressed 
in the form of law, is an effective power, abundantly suffi- 
cient to execute its decrees, without appeal to any other 
tribunal. No man can avoid seeing, however reluctant he 
may be to acknowledge, that to-day the opinion of the 
civilized world is against slavery ; and no man and no 
community in that civilized world can long resist the 
weight of the declared opinion of mankind. 

It is of no use to appeal to the political rights of those 
who own slaves. It is not a mere question of right or 
power, but of political economy, of fair standing in the 
commonwealth of nations, of conformity with the senti- 
ments of the age. No matter who it is that proves slav- 
ery to be necessary to freedom, and that no man can be 
such a lover of liberty as he who owns slaves ; no matter 
how brilliant a mind utters such deplorable absurdities. 
Common sense revolts at them, experience refutes them, 
conscience rebukes them. Nor is there the smallest justifi- 
cation of the institution in the circumstances, which are 
3 



18 



sometimes likened to it, of the child, or the apprentice, 
during pupilage. The child and the apprentice are not 
bought and sold, are not mere chattels, are not doomed to 
subjection for life, nor to total ignorance, nor to absolute 
heathenism. They have rights which must be respected. 
They have claims both by nature and by law which slaves 
have not, and they have friends to whom they can look for 
aid and protection, if their rights should be in the least 
danger. The institution of apprenticeship is, however, so 
near an approach in some of its circumstances to the de- 
pendence of one person on the conscience of another for 
his treatment, that it is almost — may we not say entirely ? 
— abolished. We do not know any one among us who is 
an indented apprentice, excepting the children from insti- 
tutions of charity, for whom kind masters are sought. 
Nor have we heard of such a thing for several years ; and 
at all events, if, as is very possible, apprentices should still 
be found in some trades or pursuits, we venture the asser- 
tion that the custom is not destined to last. It is in con- 
formity neither with the habits nor the judgment of our 
people, for a parent to resign to another the control and 
education and maintenance of his child. 

But we do not wish particularly to discuss this subject. 
If one custom is wrong or injudicious, another may be so 
too at the same time ; and if we are bound to be perfect 
before we speak of a fault or a wrong in another, the 
march of improvement will certainly be retarded. The 
north unquestionably has its faults, as weU as the south. 
No one ever dreamed of denying it. But it has not had 
the misfortune to have slavery continued in it ; and to that 
single circumstance we must attribute, not all, but a large 
proportion, of the differences of character and habits which 
exist between the Free States and Slave States. 

Seventy or eighty years of common government, and in 
various ways common circumstances, have developed pret- 
ty clearly the relative advantages and disadvantages of the 



19 



two plans, slavery and no slavery. The activity, wealth, 
and resources of the whole nation have been developed 
and accumulated with wonderful, and heretofore unexpe- 
rienced, rapidity. The world has seen nothing like it be- 
fore, and possibly may never see it repeated. The unoc- 
cupied fields of the United States can, and doubtless are, 
destined to sustain an immense population. There are 
both old and new Slave States and Free States. Which 
makes the most rapid progress in numbers, wealth, the com- 
forts and luxuries of life ? It is not pleasant to institute 
a comparison ; but it is necessary ; it is forced upon us by 
the claims of the Slave States to equality. If they were 
equal, all w^ould be well, or at least better than it is now. 
But they are not equal in many important particulars, 
viz. population, wealth, industry, enterprise, education, 
and many of the other particular points of circumstance 
and character which go to make up national character. 
" Would to God they were not only almost, but altogether, 
such as we are." It is not pleasant to contrast the ad- 
vantages of our own position and progress with theirs ; 
but as long as each feels superior, it must be done, in 
order to find out on which side is the real advantage. 

No man can open his eyes and fail to see that the north 
has the advantage in population, arts, commerce, educa- 
tion, wealth, activity, and whatever else constitutes the 
material prosperity and intellectual cultivation of society. 
And can any one see a single circumstance in external 
things, such as climate, soil, productions, which is not 
greatly in favor of the south, while the political institu- 
tions are as favorable for one as the other ? What, then, 
is the reason of a difference so advantageous to the pro- 
gress of the north ? There is, there can be, but one an- 
swer to this question. The existence of slavery in one 
portion of the Union, and not in the other. We believe 
nobody doubts this, even in the Slave States. Why is it 
not, then, perceived, that the first step towards attaining 



20 



the equality which is the great object of our political insti- 
tutions is the removal of the vast inequality of our domes- 
tic institutions ? How shall this be done ? By the spread 
of slavery over the north, or its removal from the south ? 
Is it possible to imagine the whole north converted into a 
slaveholding population ? The idea strikes one as the 
most ridiculous and preposterous conceivable. Shall we 
give up our activity, industry, equality, practical as well as 
theoretical, for the listless and comparatively idle life of 
the southern planter? If there can be a suggestion of an 
impossibility, an impracticable absurdity, it is this. 

If it be idle, then, to think of this, is there any other 
expedient ? Can the south be induced to give up slave- 
holding ? However preposterous it may sound at this day 
to say so, we do not hesitate to express our belief, not 
that it wiU be induced to do so by any action from with- 
out, but that it will do this of its own accord, from an 
enlightened regard to its own true interest, from a convic- 
tion of the right, and a desire to practise it, from that true 
self-love which prompts to just and benevolent kindness to 
others, from that patriotism which cannot submit to en- 
tailed inferiority among the nations of the w^orld. Never 
will it yield to external pressure, to mere declarations of 
authority not granted in any charter, nor prescribed in 
any constitution. Whatever it does must be done from 
its own impulses, and under its own direction. If we 
needed anything to convince us of this, beyond our own 
instinctive opposition to impertinent interference, we 
should find it in the utter uselessness of the thirty years' 
war which has been waged by a large and very confident 
party in the north against the slaveholder. What has 
been the fruit of this extreme violence? Much excitement, 
bitterness, mutual hatred, but not a single step in advance 
towards the proposed object. And so long as this object 
is pursued in the same way, that is, through political means 
and processes, we venture to predict that there will be no 
progress. 



21 



What, then, is to be done ? We answer, nothing politi- 
cally, everything morally. It is time that the vulgar, cheap 
slang aboat slavery and slaveholders, which has been 
pom'cd out of the mouth of coarse politicians, and has 
been repeated by men who might have been expected to 
be of a better taste, at least, should cease ; that, if any 
appeal is to be made by us to the slaveholder, it should be 
made on the true grounds of political economy and per- 
sonal advantage to him ; that something like calmness and 
the old mutual regard should take the place of personali- 
ties in Congress, and of bitterness out of it ; that those, 
at least, who sincerely wish for freedom and peace, should 
not suffer noisy demagogues or selfish politicians to be 
their mouthpieces, but should exert themselves warmly 
and cordially to perpetuate the unexampled prosperity 
that union insm-es, and to avert the ten thousand untried 
miseries of civil war, or even commotion, that are sure to 
follow from the prolonged interference of the north. 

If men were only patient enough sometimes to wait for 
events, they would save themselves a vast deal of trouble, 
both in the way of speculating upon the method of curing 
diseases in the body politic, and in trying to carry out 
then* devices. It is certainly a great step towards deter- 
mining by what means a reform can be effected, to ascer- 
tain by what means it cannot be produced. It is pretty 
well ascertained that no power on earth, except the individ- 
ual States in which slavery is found, can abrogate it within 
their limits. Can anything be done outside of those limits 
to hasten the process ? Judging by our own bitter expe- 
rience, we should say, no ; that nothing but irreconcilable 
hatred could be the effect of discussions, and even the 
most dispassionate discoursing on this vital subject, by 
persons not immediately interested. Every feeling which 
can cloud the intellect is brought into active exercise, and 
many most powerful passions are roused into activity, and 
will continue to be so, as long as the most important pecu- 



22 



niary and personal interests are discussed by people who 
have neither adequate knowledge, sympathy, nor skill in 
the matter. Whether slavery be considered as a crime or 
a disease, violent methods cannot be regarded as the best. 
Another thing, many other thing?;, besides the nature or 
origin of the disease, are to be taken into consideration by 
the moral as well as the physical surgeon, — the constitu- 
tion of the patient, the habits in which he has lived, the 
length of time he has been subject to the disorder, the ap- 
plicability of external or internal remedies, his age, and 
the influence of his medical adviser. If the latter be little 
or nothing, from any circumstance whatever, — whether the 
patient is, or even only thinks himself, as knowing as the 
doctor, — if he is impatient or fretful, the wise physician 
will never seek to relieve the sufferer by strong measures. 
These, so far from curing, might drive him into a frenzy, 
or the end might be, that the doctor would be dismissed, 
while the patient, left to himself, would perish helplessly. 
If the case were our own private affair, we should undoubt- 
edly, at first, be at a loss what would be the best course 
to pursue ; but of one thing we should feel well assured, 
and that is, that to adopt the second-best or the third-best 
course, of those which might present themselves, would be 
better than remaining inactive in so vital a matter. 

The real difficulty, or rather a real difficulty in the case 
is, that so many slaveholders are not convinced of the evils 
of the institution, but cling to it with the tenacity of a dis- 
ordered mind. But there is nothing to prevent those slave- 
holders who are satisfied of the ti'emendously evil tendency 
of slavery upon the body politic as well as the individual, 
from expressing their views, and laboring to ward off from 
their country the fearful experiences that undoubtedly lie in 
store for it, if timely efforts are not made. It is of the 
utmost importance that the slaveholder and the Slavehold- 
ing States should not be interfered with, either in word or 
deed, either by book, sermon, speech, or tract, or any other 



L.ofC. 



23 



indirection on the part of those without. It is their affair, 
and not ours. Let it remain so. When the time has fully 
come, when a determination shall exist in a nation profess- 
ing the most entire devotion to Liberty to rid itself of the 
reproach of slaveholding, the means will be found abun- 
dant for effecting the purpose ; and a new heavens and a 
new earth, as it were, shall be created, not only here, but 
in that most ancient and least known part of the world 
whence slavery sprung, and where it is to be hoped it may 
find its gi'ave. 

If this should come to pass, the prospect opened to 
America, as to population, extent of territory, and political 
and commercial prosperity, is literally unbounded. It is 
beyond the power of numbers. China would be dwarfed, 
and the wealth of Europe diminished, in the comparison. 
It is quite beyond human power to estimate the greatness 
of the nation that may occupy our territory, especially the 
southern portion of it, and that too very speedily, if only 
the blight which is worse than a black frost to a cotton 
crop can be removed. There is no doubt, and there can be 
no difference of opinion, as to what would be the conse- 
quence of the removal of slaves from the south. But 
what will be the future state of things if the Southern 
States imitate the impolitic Pharaoh, and " will not let 
them go " ? The plagues of Egypt would be repeated with 
tenfold horror, and the excited master would ultimately 
drive them out, or exterminate them by implacable and 
interminable war. If the States of the south were left to 
themselves, and the Union were dissolved, one of the first 
consequences, though one that seems not to be anticipated 
at the south, would undoubtedly be a general rush of 
the slaves of the contiguous States to the north, where 
they would be protected at whatever cost ; for never again 
will the north agree to give up the runaway. 

Thus, if a separation should take place, it would not be 
long before every slave would have escaped from bondage, 



24 



and upon the north would devolve the difficult question, 
What shall be done with them ? Imagine the white popu- 
lation of the south, unaccustomed as they are to labor, de- 
prived of their slaves, in the course of a few years. To 
what misery and weakness, in the absence of any support 
from the north, would they not be reduced ? It would 
need no hostile incursion from this side. — But we will not 
complete the picture even to our own imaginations. We 
are brethren, and we will not allow their boastfulness to 
provoke us to retaliation. If a separation of the present 
United States takes place, we look upon it as certain that 
the first and perfectly unrestrainable feeling of the north 
would be the wish that slavery might yet be abolished. 
As States, no action might be taken ; the larger portion of 
the north would undoubtedly act with as much regard as 
ever to those of the same race and blood with themselves. 
But what would professed abolitionists do ? Would they 
not wiite, preach, send missionaries and agents, and stir 
heaven and earth to let the bondmen go free, without much 
regard to the benefit of the negro, but simply to ruin the 
southern white man ? And what could the northern 
man, if he were perfectly friendly to the south, do ? Ab- 
solutely nothing. With his feelings, his judgment, his 
conscience, all enlisted on the side of the Declaration of 
Independence, that all men are born free and equal, — 
without the engagements of the Constitution and the 
existing laws to restrain him, — with what apathy would 
he listen to an appeal for aid to support the beneficent 
institution of the south I 

Whether the Union be preserved or not, we cannot but 
consider the doom of slaveholding among free people as 
fixed. The inconsistency, the bad economy of the system, 
the natural, instinctive dislike of the two races, the in- 
creasing knowledge and good sense of the world, all point 
to the same conclusion, and form a cumulative argument 
which will acquire weight and strength with every revolv- 



25 



ing year. We know not how long it may take to con- 
vince men against their will, how long the south will 
cling to the fatal gift, or how long a wordy controversy 
may go on, in Congress, or out of it ; but this, we think, 
is certain, that no institution so entirely at war with the 
best impulses of our nature and the clearest results of the 
understanding, with the acknowledged principles of our 
own political, fundamental law, with the more modern 
practice of all civilized nations, with the rules of political 
economy and with the law of the religion we profess, can 
maintain itself against the combined attacks of those who 
agree upon no other point, against political jealousies and 
conscientious opinions, against sectional rivalry and na- 
tional honor. 

It may be desirable to look for a moment at some of the 
possible consequences of the continuance of the existing 
state of opinion, north and south, and to consider to what 
condition of things we shall be rapidly led. It can hardly 
be expected that, with such views and feelings perpetuated 
and aggravated, the Union as it now is can long endure. 
There is alienation and hot contention at the very outset, 
and what then is the probability of a peaceful termination ? 
The navigation of the Mississippi, the division of common 
property, the boundary line between north and south, 
would afford sufficient occasion for interminable contro- 
versy, if there were no dispute about slavery at all ; and 
when this is added to all the others, it may be said to be tol- 
erably certain that mutual dislilvc and mutual injury would 
ripen into national hati'ed, and very likely would proceed 
to open and relentless war. War would lead to immedi- 
ate insurrection of the slaves, and the result would soon 
depend upon the moderation of the stronger party. It is 
in vain to attempt to shut one's eyes to the conspicuous 
fact, that, physically, morally, and industrially, the great 
force of the Union is at the north, while, without claiming 
any superiority in courage or endurance, it is manifest that 
4 



26 



ultimate success in a warlike contest depends, now-a-days, 
more upon length of purse and number of men than upon 
energy or courage. There is no question on which side, if 
sides must be taken, the superiority of numbers and of wealth 
will be found ; and we cannot acknowledge that there is 
any perceptible disadvantage in the mental or moral char- 
acter of the northerner. There is no doubt, then, as to the 
party which would ultimately obtain the preponderance, if 
it were not instantly established and acknowledged. It 
certainly behooves both to look probabilities fully in the 
face, and not, in this age of the world, to brag about their 
relative power, without definite ideas of their resources. 
But we leave this topic to the reflections of others, with 
this mere suggestion of probabilities. 

Let us suppose for a moment that a separation is peace- 
ably effected and maintained, that the slaves toil on quietly 
in the accustomed way, and, in short, that there is no new 
difficulty in slaveholding arising from such a new state of 
things as a separation of the States would produce. How 
long does the south believe that the institution is going to 
continue in the world ? This is a question which every 
statesman at least, every thinking individual indeed, ought 
to be prepared, or preparing, to answer to himself. At some 
time or another, there surely must be a period to slavery ; 
and when the day shall have come that it is abolished over 
the civilized world, will not the divided members of our 
Union again coalesce ? Would not interest insure it, 
would not nature require it ? If nature alone were con- 
sulted, if the ties of blood, and familiarity, and old friend- 
ship were regarded, it would be inevitable. And equally 
inevitable, in our judgment, is the abolition of slavery as 
now existing. As surely as serfdom has been abolished in 
civilized Europe, must slavery be ultimately abandoned in 
America. The only question is about the mode and time. 
The abolitionist says. You shall do it now, immediately ; 
the slaveholder says, I will never do it at your dictation. 



27 



Here parties come to a dead lock, and we see no way of 
relief but in a new start, extricating ourselves from a false 
position, and letting each other go. A blustering war of 
words is the very last remedy sensible men will try in any 
difficulty, and it is to be hoped that they will not only 
avoid it themselves, but will have influence enough to pre- 
vent others from indulging themselves in the pastime. At 
all events, they should try. 

Deplorable will be the end of this last political hope of 
the world, the union of these States, if it is to be sacri- 
ficed to the holding of slaves, if bigotry and Quixotism are 
to turn us aside from the great duty that we owe to man- 
kind of establishing the practicability of wise self-govern- 
ment. 

But we are fully of opinion that there is no general wish, 
much less intention, on the part of Southern politicians, to 
proceed to the point of the dissolution of the Union. It is 
the habit of the south to talk extravagantly. It is the 
habit of all southern people, as compared with more 
northern inhabitants of our globe. There is something in 
heat of weather which stimulates heat of brain, and the 
evaporation of words, like other evaporation, cools the 
over-excited body. In the north we are bound to be cool, 
and not let even the heat of opponents communicate itself 
to our temperament or behavior; and we believe firmly, 
that the best anti-slavery measure and the best southern 
measure is to discontinue the personal and political dis- 
cussion of this tremendous subject, and leave it to the 
only Power that from "seeming evil still educes good." 
We do not say this, we would not wilHngly say any- 
thing, by way of taunt or reproach to the south. Their 
anger and violence is only human infirmity, as we hope 
we may say also of the want of judgment and intem- 
perance with which we of the north have pursued a 
seemingly philanthropic project. Let us not be caught 
in the train of political or religious fanatics, but let us 



28 



express in every suitable manner our sympathy for our 
family relations, as well as for those who are not of the 
same blood. 

Those who really desire the progress of mankind will 
certainly pursue a course like this, and in fact common 
sense and the apparent course of events and discussions 
are all tending to this very result. No doubt violent men 
will continue to make themselves conspicuous, both at the 
north and the south, who will seek to bring matters to a 
violent issue, and who will do all that they can, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, to embroil all parties, and effect 
as much mischief as possible. But violent men, after all, 
do not constitute the whole, or even the majority, of these 
United States. There are thoughtful men, industrious 
men, quiet men, and patriotic men, who will never fall into 
the ranks of the violent, and they form a part of the people 
which many, whether hopeful or fearful, are apt to over- 
look. They always make themselves felt, however, when 
a real crisis occurs, and very frequently the danger is 
averted by the sure anticipation of their action. It is time 
for them to arouse themselves from their inactivity, and ex- 
ert themselves in a matter which is second in importance 
to no other. If the United States are to be anything else 
than a melancholy spot on the map, a brilliant meteor on 
a dark sky, a delusive promise, and an empty boast, the 
area of personal as well as political freedom must be co- 
extensive with her limits. 




lEJe'lO 



